Study finds hiring bias against jobless

In this Tuesday, July 10, 2012 photo, people walk by the recruiters at a jobs fair in the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree, Pa. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in four years, a hopeful sign for the struggling job market. But the decline was pa

/ AP

In this Tuesday, July 10, 2012 photo, people walk by the recruiters at a jobs fair in the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree, Pa. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in four years, a hopeful sign for the struggling job market. But the decline was partly due to temporary factors. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

In this Tuesday, July 10, 2012 photo, people walk by the recruiters at a jobs fair in the Pittsburgh suburb of Green Tree, Pa. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits plunged last week to the lowest level in four years, a hopeful sign for the struggling job market. But the decline was partly due to temporary factors. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) (/ AP)

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A study to be presented next week by researchers at UCLA and Stony Brook University appears to have found bias among hiring managers when it comes to offering a job to someone who is unemployed.

The study, called "The Psychological Stigma of Unemployment," presented nearly identical resumes to 47 human resource professionals who averaged 13 years of professional experience. The only difference between the resumes? Half of them said the job candidate was currently employed. The other half said the applicant's last job ended a month ago.

The hiring managers were asked to rate the candidates on competence and "hireability" on a 1 to 7 scale.

The candidate that was currently employed scored 4.08 on competence, while the one without a job scored 3.20. In terms of hireability, the person with the job scored 3.24 versus a 2.24 for those without a job.

A second study by the researchers found little difference in hireability for a candidate who left a job voluntarily or one who was laid off. A third study, however, found that applicants who lost their job because their employer "went out of business" were seen as more hireable than those who left voluntarily.

The studies will be presented at the annual Academy of Management meeting in Boston between Sunday and Tuesday.

The research comes at a time when the California Legislature is weighing a bill that would make it illegal to discriminate against the unemployed in job interviews and ads.

The U.S. unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in July, with the country adding 163,000 jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced Friday.

The authors of the study are UCLA Anderson School of Management researchers Geoffrey C. Ho, Margaret Shih, Daniel J. Walters. Todd Lowell Pittinsky is a researcher from Stony Brook University in New York.